Eco Child’s Play

Kimberly-Clark, makers of Kleenex, Cottonelle, and Scott products has ”set a goal of obtaining 100 percent of the wood fiber for its products — including its flagship brand, Kleenex— from environmentally responsible sources. By the end of 2011, the company will no longer use any pulp from the Boreal Forest unless it is Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified. The policy also prevents the company from cutting endangered forests, and increases the company’s use of FSC-certified pulp and recycled fiber globally.”

Finally.

Greenpeace and countless other activists have been after Kimberly- Clark since 2004 trying to get them to stop clear cutting ancient forests, especially the North American Boreal. Read the rest of this entry »

This contest is now closed thank you to all that entered.

(Never had such a hard time giving away free stuff before, so far two winners have been chosen and emailed but no one emails me back with shipping address. I’ll try one more time to choose a winner. Thanks)

TerraCycle is offering a free back to school prize pack for one lucky Eco Child’s Play reader.

Would you like to win a TerraCycle Billboard Backpack, a Drink Pouch Lunch Box, a Drink Pouch Pencil Case, and a Chips Ahoy Notebook, for a retail value of around $55?

All you have to do is read through this post and leave a comment with your contact info to be entered in the contest. Read the rest of this entry »

Plastic bags, the bane of human existence.

They were also a huge annoyance to Daniel Burd, who said that they’d come pouring out of the closet every time he did chores.

One day, I got tired of it and I wanted to know what other people are doing with these plastic bags.

So he did what any teen would do. He experimented with bacteria and decomposed a plastic bag in 3 months, winning top prize in the Canada-Wide Science Fair in Ottawa.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is preparing to issue new recommendations regarding circumcision and its supposed ability to low the risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases.

One new group hopes to have a big voice in the circumcision debate. Intact America is based in New York and backed by a pro-intact Texas millionaire.

Circumcision rates are currently at about 50 percent in the States, with rates varying dependent on region. Intactivists worry that if government officials choose to rely on select African studies, the circumcision rate will again begin to rise. Read the rest of this entry »

Eco-friendly pencils, soy crayons, smencils, Forest Stewardship Council approved colored pencils, banana paper notebooks, washable markers, recycled paper sketchbooks and journals…Stubby Pencil Studio has eco-back to school supplies for your little ones.

I love Stubby Pencil Studio because they have the cutest and most practical eco-art supplies for my kids. Read the rest of this entry »

Augh! Writing that title almost made me gag.

But a new article on the University of California, San Francisco site claims that neuroscientist Michael Merzenich has performed research that may make some leaning toward formula fulling tip over the edge.

Merzenich tested newborn rats by dosing them with the proportionally even amount that newborn humans get from human breastmilk of the chemicals PCBs and PBDEs. The outcome, he said, was

brains that were more degraded in their organization developmentally in these rats than we have ever seen before

So it’s as simple as that, eh? Breastmilk causes autism. Not so fast, there, Nestle.

Read the rest of this entry »

My kids keep outgrowing EVERYTHING.  I hear this is normal, but sheesh… would someone slow them down so my wallet can keep up with their clothing needs?  With five children (16G, 9B, 9G, 7G, 4G) to dress, it becomes even more important that I choose clothing which will last and is cost effective.  My Fall clothing budget is around $100-$150 per child (with the older ones taking a larger chunk of the overall spending because the younger girls get lots of hand-downs).  When nine pair of undies can run $20.00 (or more!), I have to be very careful with our funds.  I also want to purchase items which will hold up well to kid wear and tear so that it can be saved for the next child (or passed on to a friend).  If you are looking for a new backpack, check out Wenona’s post. Here’s how we do it. Read the rest of this entry »

Where did July go? I can’t believe it is almost August. This always happens. The 4th of July comes along then all the sudden summer is over. I know there’s still August, a whole month before school starts but it is going to be busy with appointments and trying to squeeze as much out of summer as we can before it’s gone.

One thing I am dreading is school shopping. All the stores are already doing their sales. Both my school age kids need new backpacks (among other things) since theirs have fallen apart. So I’ve been researching eco-friendly backpacks. So far here’s what I have found. Read the rest of this entry »

Fireflies have always been one of nature’s most beautiful and intriguing miracles. I could still spend hours and hours on a hot, dark summer night tracing the paths taken by the fireflies in my parents’ backyard. The fun, of course, comes from tracing the path between “blinks”, when the firefly fades to black and you are left guessing as to where they’ll appear next.

Perhaps this nostalgia explains why, when I saw the “Firefly Watch” site from the Museum of Science, Boston, I was both transported and transfixed.
Read the rest of this entry »

Say hello to eco-friendly non-stick cookware and goodbye to toxic Teflon coated pans that off-gas hazardous chemicals into the air and who knows what they put into your food.

Cuisinart has a new line of non-stick cookware that is non-stick while being  PTFE and PFOA free, which means it has none of the nasty chemicals that Teflon (and similar coatings have).

The Cuisinart GreenGourmet pans are petroleum free, they have a hard anodized interior, an aluminum alloy core, and a Cuisinart Ceramica (TM) interior that makes the pan non-stick.

So what does all this mean, you may be thinking? Keep reading to find out. Read the rest of this entry »